


to be human

by gymthree



Category: Paper Roses (Webcomic)
Genre: A future where things went right, Aged-Up Character(s), Art student Akio, Contest, Fluff, M/M, arguably AU, human au?, what does it mean to be human?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 08:57:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12229695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gymthree/pseuds/gymthree
Summary: You whispered and you asked me if I knew what it meant to be human. I mean, that’s a really complicated question and it can be taken in many ways – biologically, philosophically, emotionally. I went for the latter. That’s why I brought you here.





	to be human

_ I have something to show you. _

Alright, after that, Hiro’s imagination did wander quite a bit. He found himself completely distraught from whatever he was busy doing at the moment and instead wondering what was he going to see, what Akio would show him that was so important, what would have its own separate time of appearance. There were so many possible answers that Hiro couldn’t settle on an option. A drawing? A sculpture? An anime? A book? A photo? A song?

None of the answers above, really. Not anything close.

After dawn, Akio took Hiro to a walk, and they ended up this building atop a hill that looked like it had just finished construction. There were long banners on the sides indicating the floors and apartments that were up to sale and rent, in big square fonts with phone numbers on the side.

Akio took them up the several flights of stairs, all either still dirty with concrete or without the tiles and the flooring. When Hiro asked how the hell he managed to get them into that, he just shrugged it off and said one of his professors was also an architect and had designed that building. The professor also said that there was a way to get in for him to admire the structure, when he demonstrated interest.

There was a nice rooftop on the building, still empty but with clear space to put something on. It’d probably become a barbecue spot, an office lounge, or whatever. Akio walked up until he was near the edge, still with the safety few feet to keep him alive, and gestured for Hiro to come join him.

The sight in front of him was  _ breath-taking. _

The city was sprawled out underneath them, mostly tall buildings, flashing billboards and lampposts twirling and snaking into the city centre. Everything was lit up in a whole range of colours and the hum of cars’ traffic in the streets beneath them was ever-present. Whenever they had to go to the town centre, they missed the quiet and the safety of their home.

Once the streets got emptier and the buildings shorter, the houses more ordinary, the lampposts less flamboyant and the billboards and signs nearly gone, you could see the suburbs and, the further you went, the closer you got to their home. That made it sound like their house was really far away from everything else – it wasn’t, really. You could walk from theirs to anywhere in the city, unless you were in a hurry or something of that kind.

Up where he was, the wind made his hair go everywhere, poke his cheeks and neck and brush across his forehead in every direction possible. Akio had been smarter and his hair was already tied in the tiny, curly ponytail, although a couple locks had escaped and he repeatedly tried to put them behind his ears – to no avail.

Even if the city view made him feel all kinds of things, even if it took his breath away and threw this awareness of self and space onto him, his eyes couldn’t get themselves away from Akio. If the city was a masterpiece, Akio was… Was there even a word for that? His mind blanked and he couldn’t remember anything that would ever reach the beauty of Akio right there, in that moment.

“The other day, when you were still half-asleep,” Akio started, stopped, sighed. He brushed his hair back and closed his eyes, burying his face in his hands for a moment. Hiro just waited patiently for him to say whatever was stuck in his throat. He really wanted to know what had motivated Akio to take him up there, to bring him all those sensations that exploded and turmoiled in his chest.

“Mm?”

“The other day. I don’t know if you remember this, you were half-asleep, it was really, really early. I was already awake so I can recall it just fine- anyway, um. You were running your hand through my hair and, uh, you see,” he chewed on his bottom lip, and Hiro didn’t know why he was having so much trouble saying whatever it was. He was right, Hiro didn’t quite know what he was talking about, but maybe the memories would come back once he actually heard what this was all about.

Not knowing if it would make a difference, Hiro turned back to the city, needing a moment to take the whole bundling, buzzing, blinking picture that was the view in front of, or underneath, him.

“You whispered and you asked me if I knew what it meant to be human. You sounded so genuine when you said that, as if that question had been haunting you for a while. I don’t know if, well, it has or not – I hope not! I surely hope not, but uh. I didn’t know how to answer. I mean, that’s a really complicated question and it can be taken in many ways – biologically, philosophically, emotionally. I went for the latter. That’s why I brought you here.”

Akio turned to look and Hiro quickly, and their eyes only met for a second before Akio turned back around. That second was enough to shoot tingling rays across Hiro’s body, like this electric feeling that was there most of the time when he was with Akio, no matter how long they’d been together already.

Even if Akio was in the middle of his explanation – which he wasn’t, really -, Hiro would be just as puzzled as in the beginning.

“This. Hiro, this – seeing this makes me feel human. This, we all built this. The human race. And it’s stunning. The contrast of old and new, and the colours and the LED lights and the building, the glass, the asphalt – it’s all us. It’s all human-made. If we, humanity, weren’t a thing – this wouldn’t exist, either. All those stock-photo landscapes of plants and mountains and waterfalls would probably exist even if we weren’t around, but this? This is humanity exclusive.”

He stopped and took a deep breath, and he talked so passionately, he argued so lovingly, that Hiro wouldn’t dare take a breath that would interrupt him.

“You’re here. We’re here. The two of us are here, atop a building that our species built, in a city that our species built, in a country, in a continent, and in a planet mostly led by our species, as far as we know. We’re here. We get to experience this, we get to reflect on what this sight makes us feel, we get to feel things together, we get to  _ feel things _ , and we get to  _ be together.  _ How incredible is that? It’s  _ unreal _ , even if it may seem super normal. What’s – what is even the  _ chance _ , I mean…”

Hiro could hear his smile as he spoke, and he was just waiting for Akio to start walking around and waving his hands as he told his story. Not that he was exactly the type to, but honestly, it would fit like a missing puzzle piece.

“To be human, I guess, it’s to – everything I’ve said ‘til now. All the things I’ve listed. We get to live like this because we’re human, Hiro, and if that’s not a good enough argument I don’t know what it. You feel things, you have a heart and a brain that processes everything around you and has this imagination that can build entire universes from scratch. You come from a species that built the world as we know it, that created innumerate concepts and that built societies and languages and cultures and that varies so much in so little space. Because we’re here and we know that, and we live with that, and we’re a part of that, that’s what makes us human, Hiro. All of that.”

He turned to Hiro, totally, and leaned against him. Hiro enveloped him in his arms, securing his feet onto the ground as best as he could to keep them both standing. When Akio took a step back, his gaze was burning with a fire so determined it was almost stupid that it was fuelled by another one of Hiro’s half-asleep questions. Hiro couldn’t look away, even if he  _ tried. _

“I can’t answer your question. I mean, yeah, what does it mean to be human? That’s something different for everyone. Like I said, there are many, many ways that question can be taken, interpreted, understood. Just because I took it this one way and am choosing to reply to it like this doesn’t mean this is the definite answer, of course not, it’s all a matter of perspective, really.” Now, he was just rambling. “I’m rambling.” He was rambling. “What I mean is, there’s no answer for that. But we’re human because we’re here and we get to live this, we get to feel each other and every single fucking homo sapiens sapiens in this Earth and we get to bear their heritage and to yield a legacy to everyone that is coming after us.”

Hiro had got to say he was kind of impressed. Not that Akio did go on much of a tangent, but he talked so much. Supported his own arguments so gracefully, spoke so passionately. Why did he take the question Hiro could barely remember of verbalising, though he remembered just fine of reflecting on it, and create such a well-built response? Hiro felt really honoured, if anything.

“The way you asked me that, the other morning,” Akio said after a while, breaking the thoughtful silence that reigned between them. “You made it sound like that had been on your mind a lot. You put it on mine, and I guess – I mean, I hope that my answer helps at all. I hope it makes you not drown out in thought as often as you usually do. Not that it’s an issue, you just sometimes miss things that you maybe didn’t have to.”

“Akio?”

“Mm?”

He smiled, took Akio’s hand and kissed his temple. Everything Akio had done had been so perfect, so thoughtful. He organised that whole evening rendezvous as if Hiro really, really mattered to him, and that warmed Hiro up from head to toe. 

“I love you.”

“I bring out this gigantic speech and you-,” Akio smiled, interrupted himself and exhaled deeply, closing his eyes for a second. “I love you too, Hiro. Love you too.”


End file.
